Chapter Nine

Roxie

The next morning, I woke to the sound of my phone ringing incessantly. I reached under my pillow to grab it and stared at the screen. Thea's name glared back at me and I was immediately very awake.

"Where are you?" she snapped before I was even able to say hello.

"In my cabin," I said.

"Why are you in your cabin?"

I sat up and swung my legs over the side of the bed. My toes hit the blankets beneath and I recoiled, realizing I had nearly stepped on Luca.

"Because I slept here," I said.

I looked down and saw that the blankets were empty. I peeked into the bathroom, but the door was open. He wasn't in there.

"You are supposed to be with me for breakfast!"

I peered around the cabin and then closed the door, shucking my pajamas and dressing as fast as I could.

"I'm sorry," I said. "I overslept. I'll be there in just a few minutes."

Thea let out a sigh.

"It's alright," she said. "I'll just go ahead and order for us. It will be here when you get here."

The panic had left her voice and she sounded like herself again. Mood swings had reached an epic peak now. I was really starting to worry about when she might get pregnant one day. Hormones were not going to treat her kindly. I hung up and probably set a world record for fastest makeup application before rushing out of the cabin and toward the main building. I was twisting my hair up onto the top of my head when I heard a voice calling my name from behind me. I turned around and saw Brad coming down the walkway in my direction.

"Wait up," he said.

"I can't. I'm late to meet Thea."

I started walking away from him and I heard his footsteps following me. A second later, I felt his hand grab my elbow to stop me. I moved out of his touch but paused to look at him.

"What do you want, Brad?"

"I just wanted to tell you I'm sorry about the whole bunk beds in the cabin situation," he said. "I meant it as a joke and it didn't come out as funny as I hoped it would be. I didn't mean to make you so upset. I hope I didn't ruin your week."

"I appreciate your apology, but this week isn't about you or me. I'm here for your sister. And whether you've noticed it or not, I am here with a wonderful man and we're very happy. We’ve both moved on, Brad. We're adults. I think we can handle being at the same resort for one week to help your sister, my best friend, celebrate her wedding."

"I agree," he said. "I just wanted to tell you I'm sorry. It really is good to see you. You look incredible."

"Thanks. I've really got to go. Thea is waiting for me."

I started to turn away from him, but Brad reached out for my arm again and turned me to face him. I hated to admit it to myself, but feeling him touch me again made tears sting at the back of my eyes. It was like all the pain and embarrassment of our breakup rushed back as soon as he was close to me again. Regardless of what he had done to me, I missed him when I left home. I knew it was going to be hard to see him again, but I wasn't expecting to be as emotional about it.

"Please, Roxie. I just want to talk to you. I hate the way we left things between us…"

That was enough to take the edge off the sadness I was feeling and replace it with a bitterness that was much easier to manage.

"You can't hate it that much," I snapped. "You just got engaged to the girl you cheated on me with."

"I never got a chance to tell you I was sorry about that," he said. "I never meant to hurt you."

"Yeah," I said. "You looked really broken up about it when your face was buried in her tits."

Without giving him the opportunity to say another word, I turned and made my way down the walk to the building. I didn't let myself give into the burn of the tears. Instead, I thought about Luca. The attraction I felt for him was getting stronger, but now I wanted to do more than just run my fingers through his hair. His caramel colored eyes made my body melt just by looking into them. There's something more about him. He was funny, and sweet, and attentive. He made me feel like I was the only person in the world he could see, even when we were among all the other guests. When he looked at me, I truly felt like I was the center of his world. But I had to stop those thoughts. I had to remind myself that none of this was real. He was just doing what I asked him to do, and, for better or for worse, he was so good at it, he was actually convincing me.

But nobody had been there when we were dancing. Nobody saw the way his fingertips lingered on my cheek.

I saw Thea sitting at one of the tables on the sun porch to the side of the building. I pushed the thoughts of Luca from my head by smiling and waving at her. We ate breakfast and then headed for the largest ballroom in the back of the building where the reception would be held. Even though she had drawn me diagrams and acted out the flow of the cocktail hour and reception several times before, she needed to show it all to me in person. It was strange to see her this worked up about the wedding. She had always been fairly high-strung, and I was accustomed to her tendency to get overly excited about things, but she had been talking about her wedding her entire life. I knew she would be excited and maybe a little bit nervous, but I didn’t expect her to seem quite as panicked as she did. I wonder how much of that had to do with these unfamiliar surroundings and the fact that Thea had to completely change all the plans she had made before meeting Bryce.

Before I left for the wedding, I was still holding on to some bitterness toward Bryce for not letting Thea follow through with the wedding plans she had already made. I didn't understand why he was so insistent about them having the ceremony and reception at this resort, rather than having it at the chapel in Maple Grove and then honeymooning here. Now that we were all here, however, and amid all the festivities, I felt like I was finally beginning to understand. The way she looked at Bryce was unlike anything I had seen in all the years I had known her. That was a look I had begun to believe may only exist in movies. The closer we got to the wedding, the more I saw her look at him that way and I realized everything Luca had said about weddings was not only absolutely true, but was playing out in front of me. If Bryce had just stepped back and let Thea create the wedding she had been planning since we were children, it wouldn't really be their wedding. It would be her wedding. Everything would be about Thea and he would be pushed aside, relegated to the role of a filler that could have been replaced by basically anyone with absolutely no impact on the event.

Instead, despite what she said, she was thinking about him. She wanted this to be a celebration of the two of them. And in this case, that meant letting go of her childhood fantasy and agreeing to get married in a place that meant this much to him. By doing that, she showed him that this wasn't just about the big dress and lavish party. This week was about bringing them together and bonding them for life. I realized that it was only me who felt like she was sacrificing. She hadn’t sacrificed anything. She wasn't missing anything. She had just grown up.

"The dance floor is going to be set up over here," she said gesturing towards a space in the room that was now occupied by several round tables. "You don't think that's too close to the cake table, do you? You know how great Aunt Florence likes to dance. I just don't want to risk her trying a spin out like she did at my cousin's wedding and ending up in the cake."

"I'm sure it'll be fine," I said.

My lips curved up when I heard the word come out of my mouth.

"It took forever for Bryce and me to agree on the cake. Do you know how many different types of cake flavors there are? And then you start mixing in the fillings and the icings and fondant... I didn't even know what fondant was... it's just crazy. We must have tasted over a hundred different combinations before we... Roxie?"

"Hmmm?"

"Are you listening to me?"

"Yes," I said. "Wedding cake and fillings and icing and fondant."

"Good,” she said. "It seemed like you were somewhere else for a minute."

"I'm not. I promise. I am here for you and only you."

Thea smiled and hugged me. She clung to me just a little bit longer than she had during our other hugs that week. I felt like the closer we got to the ceremony, the more she felt like she needed to hold on. Nothing was going to change about our friendship. Not really. She was always going to be my best friend. But as soon as the ceremony was over, she would also be Bryce's wife. That was what was going to be different. No matter how long they had been together, even in the last year since they had moved in together, they hadn't been married. From one moment to the next, there was going to be a shift. She was going from being a single woman, living her life and sharing a house with her fiancé, to being a married woman, not only sharing her home with her husband, but her life. I knew we would still talk and see each other. She was my family and always would be. But it was going to be different. No matter how wonderful that difference was, or how happy I was for her, we both felt the change that was coming.

I took a step back from the hug.

"Bryce and I are going to get some pictures done this afternoon, but I'm going to see you for dinner tonight, right?"

"Of course, you are. You have that whole communal salad thing planned, don't you?"

"It's not a communal salad, Roxie. That sounds like something you contract a disease from. It's a build-your-own salad social."

I remembered her telling me about the idea a few months ago. Rather than having a traditional salad bar, she wanted to set up tables that would each feature a different type of lettuce, vegetable, salad topping, or dressing. All the guests would have to roam around the room and socialize with each other in order to build their salad before actually being able to eat it. I know that it sounded like a fun idea to Thea, but I could only imagine there were going to be some frustrated people with handfuls of sunflower seeds wondering how long it would take the little Italian restaurant down in the town to deliver a pizza.

"I'll meet you there," I said.

"Good. What are you going to do for the rest of the day? There are a lot of activities at the resort that you could do. I left a list of them in your invitation package."

I nodded.

"I know. I was pretty impressed with how thorough you were. I'm not really sure what I'm going to do the rest of the day." I looked around and then back at her. "Have you happened to see Luca?"

Thea shook her head.

"I haven't seen him since dinner last night. Is everything OK?"

"Oh, I'm sure everything is fine."

Listen to that. I withdrew my ban of the word and now I'm slinging it around with reckless abandon.

"Maybe he went out fishing," she said." I heard some of the guys were planning on seeing what they could catch today."

"Maybe," I agreed. "I'll just call him."

We parted ways, and I took my phone out of my pocket as I headed back toward the cabin. I had personally had enough of the bonding activities the day before, and was looking forward to a few hours of quiet away from the rest of the wedding party and family. The days leading up to the wedding were filled to the brim with activities, so I needed to take time to myself when I could get it.

"Where are you?" I asked when Luca answered.

"Where are you?" he responded.

I glanced around myself, half expecting to see him walking up to me or peering at me through one of the windows.

"I asked you first," I said.

"I had an errand I needed to run."

"I'm heading back to the cabin. We have a few hours before dinner with everybody tonight."

"I know," he said. "Meet me in front of the cabin. There's something I want to show you."

I hung up the phone and picked up my speed slightly. I was curious about what he could have been doing all morning. When I got to the cabin, Luca was standing outside. He smiled at me as I approached and immediately started walking down the walkway in the same direction.

"Where are you going?" I asked.

"Come with me," he said.

I did not argue. I fell into step beside him and we made our way down the path toward a less dense section of trees than what we had explored the day before. We walked along for several minutes before the trees parted and we stepped out into a clearing. Luca had been walking in front of me as we wound through the trees, but now he stepped aside so that I could see the clearing fully and I gasped. In the middle of the clearing a large blanket was laid out with a picnic basket set to the side.

"What's all this?" I asked.

"I was thinking about what you told me about Brad," he said. "I know it's not quite the same. We don't have a special spot or anything and I don't know exactly what he had planned. But that seems like too good of a memory for you to waste on him. This way when you think about picnics, you don't have to think about that. You can hold on to this memory until you have another one."

I couldn't believe what I was seeing. I didn't know what to say. Instead, I just wrapped my arms around him and buried my head against his shoulder. Luca held me around the waist for a few seconds and then released me, so he could guide me to the blanket. We sat down and he opened the basket, pulling out the containers and packages of food inside.

"How did you do this?"

"I got back in that stupid tinker toy of a car and went into town. While we were lost, I noticed a couple of gourmet shops and a bakery. The ladies there were kind enough to help me put this together."

"You braved the car for me?" I asked.

"We'll think of it as my dragon to slay," he said.

I laughed, my mind filling with the image of Luca dressed in a suit of armor as he crossed the parking lot to confront the dinky little vehicle.

"Thank you for all of this," I said. "It means a lot to me."

Luca popped a grape into his mouth and held one out to me.

"I'm glad," he said.